Bob Westerdale

Robert Dowd’s four-point performance against Nottingham Panthers has earned him special praise from his coach Paul Thompson.

The Sheffield Steelers winger looked a menace every time he received the puck last weekend and was clearly on a mission to put Panthers to the sword.

And a slight tinkering to his role on the Power Play didn’t do him any harm either.

He scored a PP goal in Saturday’s 5-4 win and a goal and two assists, one on the PP, in Sunday’s 6-1 whitewash.

“I thought Robert Dowd was outstanding” said Thommo. “He was our best player over the two games. I don’t normally single people out. But we made an adjustment on the power play, got him on the one-time side.

“He was buzzing in every zone. Defensively he was strong, his speed was there and he got a lot of points. That line made things happen. We know on any night any of our top nine forwards can be ‘that guy.’ And then we get the supporting role from Jono (Phillips) and Luke (Ferrara.) Another guy who should get a mention Markus Nilsson, he has been outstanding.”

Rob Dowd in potent form for Steelers against Nottingham Panthers

The speed of his players over-ran Nottingham and will be a threat in trips to Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils this weekend. “Our transition was quick and they struggled at times to keep up with the pace of the game that we were playing. When we play like that we are a tough nut to crack. And we have played like that the majority of the year.

Thompson confirmed that Zack Fitzgerald was injured by an elbow to the head in Nottingham, an offence which they had complained to the Department of Player Safety about.

The coach said it was too early to say when he would be back in game-shape.